Library Page(s)

[eumelia]

Working at a library has many perks.

You get to see how it actually works, the whole system and drudgery of hauling books to and fro, discovering that students (my peers) are often so helpless in the wake of the scope of the stacks.

That's very charitable thinking as very often they are simply lazy. That's also an unfair assessment, the books are intimidating, especially when you have this system to work through. It's called Dewey-Decimal. Why can't it just be alphabetical?
I used to think that, when I was in high school and spent most of my free time (or the time skiving off lessons) hiding in the stacks, reading useless sex-ed books (hey, you had to find porn where you could get it) and the slim selection of Science Fiction and Epic Fantasy was not much to go on.
But woe, the alphabet is sorely lacking in the nuance needed for arranging books in a Library that caters to those who are to be over-educated (like moi!).

I'm still under a lot of scrutiny. I try to take in stride but my boss is one of those unsmiling sorts and takes making sure I put all the books on the shelf correctly. I'm waiting for this month to end, if only so that I can be trusted with the books a bit more.

I find myself loving books more now that I handle them as objects and not things which contain things I want to read or know. it's a different way of interacting with a book. The majority of the books I handle are so incredibly boring I don't even bother leafing through them - seriously, "Introduction to Microeconomics", "Qualitative Research". Those are the titles.
I pity my fellow over-educated peers. I mean, granted not everything I have to read is a page turner, but still, they would pity themselves more than they would pity me.

My stacks are not sexy stacks, alas. They are metal and have many copies of one book - many of them is very bad condition. Wear and tear comes with the territory, but it being a reading hall Library (there is more hall than Library, in fact) you'd think people would take care - after all, the books don't actually belong to them.

In relation to the above, I was sitting around with friends a few days ago and while I can't remember what it was we were watching, it did contain a chase scene and the person running away pushed over a bookcase and I cried out along with a wince:
"No! Not the books!"
And was promptly laughed at by my friends.

The main (and self-indulgent and shows you all how anti-social I actually am) perk, is that I get to show off my mad book finding skills and feel superior to the other over-educated students who think we're going to find jobs with a crummy B.A. in the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

Unless you major in Econ. Then you have a chance. Maybe.

P.S.
BBC's Sherlock has taken over my brain side by side with Inception. I cannot wait to finally have a functional DVD player so that I can re-watch some of Doctor Who and Torchwood. I've been completely neglecting those fandoms!.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I miss Dewey Decimal.

The ANU had some weird system (Library of Congress) which meant I actually had to look up codes rather than just head over to 193 for some modern German philosophy. I mean, sure, they both grouped most of the books I needed near each other, but it's annoying when you have accidentally memorized the code for a book in one system and then that to find the same book in another.

[eumelia]

Yeah, my sister researches at Israel's National Library and told me the system there is also Library of Congress. I haven't checked what the system looks like but now I live in fear of never knowing the right number!

[ironed_orchid]

Well, armed with the right number and the location (e.g. basement level) I managed to find the books I needed. But after 7 years or more of using Dewey Decimal, I never quite adjusted.

[pineapplechild]

Man, I totally had the Dewey Decimal system down, and then I went to college, where the library uses the Library of Congress numbering. *cue weeping in frustration*

Also, I'm an econ major. So, not only have I read that intro to microeconomics, I've read Advanced Statistics and Econometrics! (And, erm. Learned more from my cartoon guide to statistics.)

[eumelia]

I pity Econ students, truly, especially when entering a profession that gets the blame for the failing to anticipate human behaviour.

Statistics! *runs screaming*

:P

[pineapplechild]

It is possibly the only thing I don't like about Econ. That, and the tendency to think of Econ as a hard science, where you can put numbers in and get an actual answer out. (Which is, in fact, one of the main reasons Econ gets that blame.) You get an answer, but what it actually means... entirely different story.
I got into economics as an extension of philosophy. And that's really the heart of econ, to my mind.

[silveradept]

Paging is a good way to see how the nuts and bolts of a library works...and to be the person on whom the library's continued smooth operation hinges. Because if you don't get books back into their place on time, then I end up not being able to give them to people who want them...and that's very sad-face inducing.

Give your boss time to let up on you - the assurance of being able to put stuff back correctly is important, and now that you're demonstrating competence, they'll hopefully move the Eye of Sauron elsewhere soon.

[eumelia]

Definitely a nuts and bolts kind of job. I'm having a great time of it. It feels good to have that magic trick of being able to see the book that's right in front of a person's face that they need but, somehow,cannot see.
It's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat! Or stack :)

Oh, I have no problem with the scrutiny, totally understand the necessity. It's just, you know, a little unnerving at times.

[silveradept]

Quite the magic rabbit-hat trick. Those of us who are doing reference desk work have Advanced Hat-Pulling as one of our courses, where we can magically take things like vaguely-worded assignments and turn them into research projects with good footings.

[eumelia]

Ooooh, I had a couple of those last week.
"I need to do a project about the Berlin Wall"
In my mind: "Bwah?!"
What I said: "Have you searched the data base yet?"
Them: "Data base?"
In my mind: "HELP! O.O"
What I said: "Here [opens the uni website] let me show you"

Another was: "I'm doing a project about the Internet"
In my mind: *weeping*
What I said: "Have you seen Social Network?

It was amusing.

[silveradept]

I'll bet. In our system, anyone who gets caught with something they don't feel comfortable with is highly encouraged to dump them off on someone who has had Advanced Hat-Pulling and let them do the thing. For our pages, it's not actually in their job description to do reference work at all. Don't know if that's the same for you.

[eumelia]

I've generally found them the specific book or books they already knew they needed (they either couldn't see it on the shelf or wrote the Dewey number wrong or got the title/author wrong, stuff like that) and pointed them in the direction of shelves that may or may not have various books that pertain to the subject of their search.

But more often than not I'll tell them that they need to ask the actual Librarian - I just happen to know where the books go!

[silveradept]

Got it. You're finding out that in all RPG-type campaigns, library workers have a significant bonus to spot checks, especially when there's an order to the things being looked at.

[pineapplechild]

Now you're giving me ideas for characters... wonder if my GM would let me get away with justifying that bonus with "It's okay, I'm a librarian."

[silveradept]

They should. I mean, if you work in a place where your job is to spot the one out of a lot of similar-looking things, you should be able to claim a professional bonus to spotting things that look out of place or that need to be found.